Bucks Country officials have announced that they are suing the main manufacturers of insulin and companies that negotiate drug prices for insurers regarding the “illegal price determination program”.
“Manufacturers and indirectly falsified the American drug valuation system, thanks to which insulin is extremely expensive for families covered by our health plan,” said the Bucks Councilor Amy Fitzpatrick at the Friday press conference in Doylestown.
The lawsuit, filed in the American District Court in the New Jersey district, claims that Bucks County, which offers health insurance over 2,000 employees, pays excessively high prices for insulin and other diabetes drugs. Managers for pharmacy services CVS Camark, Express scripts and Optumrx are listed as accused, as did insulin producers Eli Lilly and Co., Novo Nordisk and Sanofi.
Fitzpatrick announced a lawsuit along with two democratic commissioners of Bucks, Bob Harvie and Diane Ellis-Molsglia, as well as the District Prosecutor of the Bucks District District Jennifer Scharn.
Insulin and most other drugs cost More than twice as much in the United States compared to other developed countries. The drug is crucial for many of 38.4 million Americans living with diabetes, and in some cases bottom -up health organizations estimate pharmaceutical companies introduced price markers up to 5000% from the actual cost of production.
In previous elections in 2024, former President Joe Biden often advertised an administration limit on insulin prices in the amount of 35 USD for Medicare patients. This week, President Donald Trump signed an executive order Aiming to reduce the high costs of prescription drugs by ordering pharmaceutical companies to reduce the prices of lower rates paying other countries, although it is not clear, as it works.
Pharmaceutical Care Management Association, an industry group representing managers for pharmacy benefits, He answered the last control Saying that criticism ignores the progress that companies have reduced insulin costs and that they do not take into account the role of the entire prescription drug supply chain.
At Bucks, Fitzpatrick, he rattled a series of statistics justifying the legal activities of the unit.
Pharmacy managers act as intermediate between insurers and producers. They manage drug plans for insurers, negotiating drug prices and deciding which medicines will be covered by plans.
According to a lawyer, three pharmacy managers mentioned in the control of the 80% market for over 270 million Americans. Fitzpatrick said that the scope of this control “eliminated sensible competition” for cheaper options, enabling these companies to demand higher discounts from producers who raise prices even more.
For her part, Ellis-Molsglia said that she would prefer to see “millions” in dollars of taxpayers Bucks County pays for the insulin used to finance inexpensive housing projects, first aid and treatment of mental health.
Her counterpart, Harva, emphasized the differences between American insulin costs and other countries, citing statistics showing that residents pay up to six times more for the drug than in Mexico and up to 18 times more than in Poland.
“Someone has to oppose companies that cause this pain,” Harva said.
When asked about the intended purpose of the lawsuit, Harvie said: “We expect prices to fall, not only for the inhabitants of Bucks.”
Harvie said that the impulse to the lawsuit appeared about two years ago under the former advocate of Bucks Joe Khan. When other cities and poviats still enter their own dispute related to insulin, this happens “when the elements are found”.
The District Prosecutor in Philadelphia, Larry Krasner, introduced a lawsuit last year, which he calls the same main managers for pharmacy and producers benefits, demanding collusion about insulin prices and looking for unnamed monetary damage and end of practice. The accused said in response that the claim is unfounded and should be dismissed.
Elsewhere, Minnesota Stan He won the settlement in his lawsuit against Ela LillySuccessfully limiting insulin prices for state residents in the coming years.
Schorn, a district prosecutor, said about the inhabitants of Bucks, both juvenile and older, for whom insulin is a drug saving life, using the example of a mother and her son, who has diabetes and relies on medicine.
People with type 1 diabetes Do not produce insulin, a hormone that controls blood sugar levels, while people with type 2 diabetes have problems with the insulin regulation of their body. Without additional insulin, people with diabetes may experience dangerously high blood sugar levels, which leads to damage to organs and nerves.
“Why was insulin privileged in this country?” Schorn said. “Insulin is not a luxury, it is maintaining life.”
This is not the first effort of Bucks to apply court disputes as means to combat national problems.
In 2018, the unit joined the rule throughout the country, successfully suing the main producers of opioids and distributors in order to regain compensation from the destructive impact of prescription addictive drugs on the surrounding communities.
Since then, Bucks officials have suffered social media companies about what they think are practices that harm the youth of the district, as well as the main oil companies for their role in accelerating the climate crisis.
